Family miss anniversary flight after huge queues at airport
A FAMILY missed their Barcelona flight to celebrate a ruby wedding anniversary due to the airport queues – and say they had to fork out £614 for new tickets to salvage their trip.
Mike Turner, 41, had travelled to the hub from Stockport with his husband Luke Hartbottle and parents Tom and Marie Turner, who were celebrating 40 years of marriage.
The easyJet tickets, he says, had set him back around £630.
However, Mike claims that a wait for baggage check-in, security queues which snaked into the airport, as well as a further delay at the baggage scanners meant they arrived at the gate too late to catch their flight.
Mike managed to get new tickets to fly one-way eight hours later with Vueling for another £614.25, but he says the delay has marred their getaway – and made them miss a specially-planned day trip.
Teacher Mike, 41, said: “It just felt like this trip we’d been planning for years for my mum and dad, with a nice hotel and tickets for the Sagrada Familia was scuppered for something that wasn’t our fault.
“It was already two years late because of Covid.
“I did really feel for the staff – the woman at the gate was very apologetic but said the plane had to go and the pilot couldn’t wait any longer.
“Our bags had been taken off.”
A spokesman for Manchester Airport said: “We apologise to passengers whose experience at Manchester Airport in recent days has fallen short of the standard they expected.”
An easyJet spokeswoman said: “We’re contacting to Mr Turner to apologise for his experience and the inconvenience this caused, and to provide a gesture of good will.”